Among many peoples the female children are usually “engaged” in their earliest youth. Concerning the Eskimo to the north of Churchill, Franklin states that, “as soon as a girl is born, the young lad who wishes to have her for a wife goes to her father’s tent and proffers himself. If accepted, a promise is given which is considered binding, and the girl is delivered to her betrothed at the proper age.”[1286] Early betrothals are among the established customs of the Chippewyans,[1287] Columbians,[1288] Botocudos,[1289] Patagonians,[1290] and other American peoples.[1291] Among the African Marutse, the children “are often affianced at an early age, and the marriage is consummated as soon as the girl arrives at maturity.”[1292] The Negroes of the Gold Coast, according to Bosman, often arranged for the marriage of infants directly after birth;[1293] whilst, among the Bushmans, Bechuanas, and Ashantees, children are engaged when they are still in the womb, in the event of their proving to be girls.[1294] In Australia, too, girls are frequently promised in early youth, and sometimes before they are born.[1295] The same is the case in New Guinea,[1296] New Zealand,[1297] Tahiti,[1298] and many other islands of the South Sea, as also among several of the tribes inhabiting the Malay Archipelago.[1299] Mariner supposed that, in Tonga, about one-third of the married women had been thus betrothed.[1300] In British India infant-marriage has hitherto been a common custom; and all peoples of the Turkish stock, according to Professor Vámbéry, are in the habit of betrothing babies.[1301] So also are the Samoyedes[1302] and Tuski;[1303] and among the Jews of Western Russia, parents betroth the children whom they hope to have.[1304] Among some peoples, it is the mother,[1305] brother,[1306] or maternal uncle,[1307] who has the chief power of giving a girl in marriage. In Timor-laut, Mr. Forbes says, “nothing can be done of such import as the disposal of a daughter without the advice, assistance, and witness of all the villagers, women and youths being admitted as freely to speak as the elder males;”[1308] and in West Australia, according to Mr. Oldfield, the consent of the whole tribe is necessary for a girl’s marriage.[1309] Yet such cases are no doubt rare exceptions, and give us no right to conclude that there ever was a time when children were generally considered the property of the tribe, or of their maternal kinsfolk.